POLITICO's Pulse Check - TopPodcast.com

Latest Episodes:

Unlocking health data Dec 07, 2022

Show notes

At the first day of the Milken Future of Healthcare conference, Ben Leonard talks with Steve Posnack, the Deputy National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS, about what he thinks the biggest barriers are to people getting access to their health data. Plus, over on Capitol Hill, lobbying reporter Megan Wilson attended a Q&A with Jack Resneck, the president of the American Medical Association, who is in town to push lawmakers to avert nearly 8.5 percent in Medicare payment cuts that doctors face in January unless Congress acts.

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Ex-FDA vaccine inspectors call for better training Dec 06, 2022

Show notes

Ben Leonard talks with Erin Banco about her investigation into why the FDA team overseeing licensed vaccines is overwhelmed by high turnover and a backlog of inspections. Also, Shawn Zeller provides a preview of the Milken Institute’s Future of Health Summit, which starts today.

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Top pharma group seeks postmortem on lobbying after drug pricing loss Dec 05, 2022

Show notes

Washington’s top pharmaceutical lobby is doing some self-reflection, commissioning a report that looks at its advocacy in the runup to its most consequential legislative loss in decades. Megan R. Wilson talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about the upcoming report.

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Elon Musk wants to put a chip in your brain Dec 02, 2022

Show notes

Elon Musk’s health tech company Neuralink shared updates to its brain-implant technology on Wednesday. Ben Leonard talks with Ruth Reader about the technology, which has big implications for people who suffer with mobility issues such as those with spinal cord injuries or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

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The states making another run at expanding Medicaid in 2023 Dec 01, 2022

Show notes

Democratic governors in North Carolina and Kansas are set to take another run at expanding Medicaid next year. Megan Messerly talks with Megan Wilson about how increased federal incentives and Medicaid expansion advocates have gradually worn down traditional GOP opposition.

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Covid forced rural health care to go virtual. Providers don’t want to go back. Nov 30, 2022

Show notes

Daniel Payne talks with Lauren Gardner about the lobbying from health care providers trying to convince lawmakers toextendthe telehealth rules that were passed during the pandemic — and that would expire after the lifting of the Covid-19 public health emergency.

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These 'Abortion Pirates' want equal access to abortion pills worldwide Nov 29, 2022

Show notes

Doctors, researchers and women’s activists convened in Riga, Latvia, to explore ways to use pills to circumvent anti-abortion laws. Emily Schultheis talks with Ruth Reader about this network of activists that is becoming increasingly international.

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The challenges of long Covid and federal disability policies Nov 28, 2022

Show notes

Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services declared that long Covid can be classified as a disability under federal law, opening up protections and accommodations that extend into the workplace. POLITICO labor reporter Nick Niedzwiadek joins Katherine Ellen Foley to discuss how gaps between what the law requires of employers and the on-the-ground reality factor into how people with long Covid can receive disability assistance if merited and be productive employees if possible.

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Using environmental laws to curb abortions Nov 23, 2022

Show notes

Host Carmen Paun talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about her exclusive report on a new strategy being used by abortion opponents.

The approach comes as the pills mifepristone and misoprostol, taken at home during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, have become the most common method of abortion in the U.S. and virtually the only option for millions of people in states with laws that have forced clinics to close since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

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Long Covid’s funding shortfall Nov 22, 2022

Show notes

Ruth Reader and Katherine Ellen Foley discuss the impact on long Covid treatments if the new congress doesn’t approve additional funding for Covid-19 research.

The Biden administration has asked Congress for more than $9 billion in additional funding for Covid-19 that would go toward next-generation vaccine development and long Covid research, a poorly understood, chronic condition affecting millions of Americans. But the incoming divided Congress is unlikely to back federal requests funding research into viable treatments for long Covid and big pharma has yet to launch major studies. An ongoing medical debate about what exactly long Covid is means the industry doesn’t yet have a specific target for therapeutic treatment research.

Without further funds, the fledgling research on potential treatments may come to a standstill.

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